The Nightmare That Inspired Freddy Krueger: The Hmong Sleep Deaths (United States)

Haunted American History · Jul 18, 2026 · 24m

In the early 1980s, healthy young Hmong refugees across the United States began dying in their sleep. They went to bed exhausted and never woke up. Medical examiners found no poison, no disease, and no obvious cause of death. But the victims all shared the same terrifying belief: a malevolent night spirit called the dab tsog had come to crush the life from their bodies. The unexplained deaths became one of modern medicine's greatest mysteries—and inspired a young filmmaker named Wes Craven to create one of horror's most iconic monsters. Tonight, we uncover the heartbreaking true story behind…